Two Bills Drive

‘”Canadians are nice to a fault. Very cordial, very hospitable. They say, `Pardon me?’ Instead of, `What’d you say,'” he says, curling his lip into a snarl. “Compared to Americans, who are kind of crass, they’re polite and proper. I like that. It’s nice.”‘

‘Or do the Patriots, as another example, continue playing their ”Dollar” (no down linemen) defense in an attempt to surprise the Bills because they might think Buffalo is probably thinking there’s no way New England will try to confuse their inexperienced offensive line again with linebackers and defensive backs walking and talking amongst each other near the line of scrimmage, then seemingly improvising in their pass rushes/coverages?’

”’Oh, yeah, he’s good. He’s not as big as Moulds or as physical, but he’s fast and a really smooth athlete,” Bill Belichick said of rising star Peerless Price, the Bills’ fourth-year receiver who has the numbers (72 receptions, 1,020 yards, 9 touchdowns) but perhaps not yet the reputation to join his teammate in the Pro Bowl. ”He’s a glider. He’s a tremendous athlete who makes route-running look easy, effortless. ”He’s a real polished receiver in addition to a real talented receiver.”’

‘The defensive keys to winning, according to Johnson: Stop the Bills on third down and stop their running game on every down.’

‘The top 17 quarterbacks in the AFC have combined to throw 5,728 passes. Of those, 3,619 were completed — 63 percent. Of the 2,109 that weren’t caught, only 163 fell in the arms of the opposition.’

‘The first time the Patriots faced the Bills this season and won, 38-7, they exploited backup corner Chris Watson. He was playing in place of starter Antoine Winfield . Now Winfield’s back and he’s covered everyone from Wayne Chrebet to Santana Moss to Tony Gonzalez. He’s better than Watson. He and fellow corner Nate Clements are a pretty good pair.’

‘Bruschi’s injury is considered significant because Bledsoe has completed 75 passes to his primary backs, Travis Henry and Larry Centers.’

‘As game day approaches, the Buffalo Bills are facing the unenviable task of trying to figure out what kind of offense the Patriots run. Good luck. The Patriots don’t even know themselves.’

‘”You’re not trying to transform a guy that you know that this just isn’t what he is,” Belichick said. “Mike is not really a defensive end in this league so he needs to be a linebacker.I mean, Pittsburgh saw the same thing, and that is all he can be.”‘

‘During a game, the back judge, who stands behind the secondary, is in charge of calling the delay of game penalty. The back judge looks at the clock and then looks to see if the ball has been snapped.’

‘In the first game in early November a combination of good execution by the Patriots and poor tackling by the Bills allowed New England to rack up over 186 yards of offense after the catch. Tom Brady and company transformed what has been referred to as a "dink and dunk" offense into big plays and touchdowns.’

‘Q: What do you think Buffalo did well in the first game that they might want to go back to and do this game? BB: Well, let’s just say what they think they did well. They said that they thought they moved the ball well, they just didn’t score in the red zone. They said that they thought that they played pretty good defense, they made good on the screen passes. So there are two things right there that I’m sure they feel like they were close on a couple of kickoff returns. Those are some things right there that they said that they thought went pretty well, I guess a couple of things that didn’t go well, they overrode them. Move the ball into the redzone, then you are not effective on offense.’

‘”I know that I still have a lot of fans out there and a lot of people appreciate what I did while I was there so it will probably be a mixed reaction (during the game). There will probably be some people that cheer for me. (But) during the course of the game I would expect the New England fans to do what they did the whole time I was there… which was to support their team.”‘

In his first year with Atlanta, former Bills HC & DC Wade Phillips has the Falcons ranked in the league’s top 10 in several defensive categories: Sacks (2nd), Interceptions (4th), Giveaway/Takeaway (6th), Forced fumbles (T8th)

For the 16th consecutive year the top high school football student-athletes in Western New York are being honored by the Buffalo Bills for their participation on the football field and in the classroom. All of the 41 scholar-athletes are seniors who played varsity football and have maintained an academic average of a 90 or above in their studies. The 2002 "All Academic Team" is co-sponsored by the WNY High School Sports newspaper.